{"id":118573,"date":"2018-09-18T12:57:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T16:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=118573"},"modified":"2018-09-21T14:04:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T18:04:30","slug":"overnight-at-the-bates-outing-club-lean-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/09\/18\/overnight-at-the-bates-outing-club-lean-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates at Night: S’mores and more at the Bates Outing Club Lean-to"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 8:33 on a recent Thursday night, a few miles from campus, a white butane lighter ignited some kindling, and soon flames illuminated smiles on faces gathered around a campfire.<\/p>\n

As the burning wood snapped and popped, and smoke mixed with incoming fog, students who\u2019d traded dorm rooms for sleeping bags and stars began to toast s\u2019mores at the Bates Outing Club<\/a> Lean-to.<\/p>\n\t\n\t

\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t
\t
\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Light the marshmallow on fire for the toasted look, or go for the slow, golden brown? \"I'm a slow roaster, but I usually end up burning it due to impatience,\" says Megan Detels '20 of Marblehead, Mass. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\t
\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Chandler Ryan '19 of Delmar, N.Y., creates an assembly line for s'mores: a marshmallow (to be toasted) and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\t
\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Build the fire teepee-style or like a log cabin? They choose log cabin. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\t
\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Matthew Berdon '19 of Hartsdale, N.Y., chops kindling while others forage for dry deadwood. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\t
\n\t\t\"\"\n\t\t

Wearing headlamps, students roll out sleeping bags before starting the campfire. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

\u201cThere is something very satisfying about building a fire,\u201d said Megan Detels \u201920 of Marblehead, Mass. \u201cI love smelling like campfire all the next day. When I smell my hair throughout the day it reminds me that I woke up outside, to the rising sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething simple like spending a night in the lean-to breaks up our very scheduled lives,\u201d said Nellie Breen \u201921 of Pasadena, Calif. \u201cIt reminds us to appreciate the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Breen\u2019s first trip to the lean-to, and a very intentional one. \u201cI wanted to push outside my comfort zone and embrace the uncertainty of meeting new people,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re lucky to be part of a community where people are so welcoming and supportive of new experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLife at Bates can get pretty hectic,\u201d said Chandler Ryan \u201919 of Delmar, N.Y. \u201cIt can be such a reprieve to spend a night not worrying about schoolwork and just focus on building a fire and eating s’mores and getting a good night’s sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Built in 1999 as a Short Term project by Bates students \u2014 including Ben Ayers \u201899, who now does economic sustainability work in Nepal \u2014 the 10-by-17 lean-to sits within the Marden-Chittick Refuge, 200 acres of land that Judy Marden \u201966 gave to the Androscoggin Land Trust as a conservation easement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope by providing the space for the lean-to, I’m doing some part to bring more kids outdoors,\u201d said Marden, whose long and active involvement with the BOC dates to her college days when, she recalled, BOC leaders \u201cled me up Tumbledown Mountain the first weekend of my freshman year. They changed my life \u2014 for the good!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the most important task for the BOC is to get people out on trips who might not otherwise go on them,\u201d Ryan agreed. As a first-year, she was \u201cdefinitely nervous about going on trips. The solid, approachable leadership of some strong women at the helm of the Outing Club encouraged me to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cS’mores and campfires in the outdoors have been parts of the most empowering and connecting experiences during my time at Bates,\u201d says Chandler Ryan \u201919. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1016,"featured_media":118576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[32,11012],"tags":[11217,1467],"class_list":["post-118573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maine-and-new-england","category-student-life","tag-bates-at-night","tag-bates-outing-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1016"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118573"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118732,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118573\/revisions\/118732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}